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Boston Bruins' Matt Fraser (25) celebrates with teammate Dougie Hamilton after scoring the winning goal against the Montreal Canadiens during the first overtime period in playoff action Thursday, May 8, 2014 in Montreal.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

MONTREAL — There was no broken nose this time. No Maurice (Rocket) Richard leaping into the arms of Elmer Lach, smashing Elegant Elmer’s beak for the seventh and final time to celebrate the Canadiens’ 1-0 overtime win over the Boston Bruins.

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That’s how it went down on April 16, 1953 at the Forum, the Habs eliminating the Bruins that night in the fifth of a five-game Stanley Cup semifinal on Lach’s goal 82 seconds into overtime.

That was the 37th of the record 174 times these two great rivals have met in the NHL playoffs. And that was the only time the Canadiens and Bruins played 60 minutes of goalless hockey.

Until Thursday night in a Bell Centre that, in the end, was not 21,273 fans fighting for what oxygen was left in the building, but rather holding its breath.

For just 79 seconds.

The puck goes inot the net past Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price on a goal by Boston Bruins’ Matt Fraser in Montreal. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson)

Matt Fraser scored the game’s only goal — in his first NHL playoff game — 1:19 into extra time to lift the Bruins to a stunning, vital victory and square this series at two games apiece.

So now we’ve got a best-of-three, the Bruins again holding home-ice advantage with two of the final scheduled three games on Boston ice.

Fraser was a last-minute call-up from Providence of the American Hockey League on Wednesday, and you know the youngster will never forget this game.

“You hear so much about the rivalry but when you’re actually in the mix of it, it’s exciting more than anything,” the 23-year-old native of Red Deer, Alta., said before the contest. “I’ve played for the Stanley Cup a thousand times on the outdoor rinks, so it will be exciting for sure.

“But once you get out there, you just have to play your game.”

Matt Fraser scoring GW goal and excited to talk to his parents about it is the reason why we love sports! Can't script stuff! #bruins#wbz

Teammate Milan Lucic fished the souvenir puck out of the empty net, and it’s surely bound for a trophy case somewhere.

The Bruins knew they had to burst from the gate Thursday like a thoroughbred and then, like a stroppy racehorse will do, lean heavily on their opponent.

Boston came into Game 4 having scored just once in three first periods, the Canadiens with three. Not once during the first three games did the Bruins lead the Habs in a second period, in each game clawing back from two-goal third-period deficits to send it into overtime, win, then make it close.

So Boston came out physically, outhitting their hosts 20-16 in the first period and outshooting them 13-10. That it was 0-0 at the end of 20 minutes marked the first goal-free period of this quarter-final series since the first overtime of Game 1, finally won by Montreal in the 85th minute.

More of the same in the second, if in a sloppier period — outhitting Montreal 10-6, being outshot 9-8.

Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens guards his net as Douglas Murray defends against Daniel Paille of the Boston Bruins in Game Four. (Francois Laplante/Freestyle Photography/Getty Images)

For the first time this series, the Canadiens didn’t have to protect a two-goal third-period lead and for that, they threw all they had at Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask, outshooting their visitors 14-7.

But Rask, and Canadiens counterpart Carey Price, held firm to send this into overtime, Fraser stuffing home the game’s only goal in a sloppy scramble to the side of the Montreal net.

This series tilted off its axis Thursday morning when Bruins coach Claude Julien threw together some bizarre morning-skate lines that were reminiscent of the head-shake trios concocted here in the days of former Habs coach Jacques Martin.

(Somewhere in a closet in the coach’s Bell Centre office is Martin’s blender, the appliance into which he regularly shook his roster before hitting the purée button. But don’t laugh: as an assistant coach for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Martin is now one win from the Eastern Conference final.)

“It just gives you guys something to write about so you don’t get bored,” Julien joked later, the Internet having melted when correspondents tweeted the combinations. “Tonight I will decide if I want to stick with those or put my lines back to what I want.”

Of course, Julien went to pretty much conventional combos when it mattered.

“We’re not overconfident,” he had added in the morning, a curious comment considering his team was trailing this series 2-1. “We’re in a good series here, a big series.”

The Bruins were in need of something — anything — with their backs gently against a Montreal wall. And they got it, finally.

At the root of their evils had been the performance of their first line, David Krejci between Lucic and Jarome Iginla.

Krejci, who many observers said would be mopping the ice with fellow centre and countryman Tomas Plekanec, had been the Invisible Man. He entered Game 4 with one lonely assist versus the Canadiens, three assists in the Bruins’ eight playoff games.

He was getting no help from, nor was he providing much to, his wingers. Lucic and Iginla had a whopping total of two goals and two assists.

Jarome Iginla shoots the puck through P.K. Subban of the Montreal Canadiens in Game Four. (Francois Laplante/Freestyle Photography/Getty Images)

Krejci had been largely a bust on faceoffs, which has done nothing to generate offence for his line. One of the NHL’s premier centremen, he was a brutal 29 per cent in Game 3, a more efficient 53 per cent in Game 2 and 48 per cent in the series opener.

Meanwhile, the Canadiens net has been mostly a rumour to Iginla, who through three games seemingly had hit about 137 goalposts behind Price.

Iggy had six shots on goal total through three games, which wasn’t going to pick him up from where he left off in his 30-goal, 31-assist regular season.

Lucic’s goal and two assists in Games 1-3 made him look like an offensive powerhouse by comparison and he’d not played the wrecking ball for which he’s known.

That line, and the Bruins, have lived to play at least two more games.

Where it’s going is to Game 5 in Boston, the first Saturday night the Canadiens will have played in four weeks. And now, we’re down to best-of-three. The Canadiens can return home for Game 6 on the brink of elimination — theirs, or that of the Bruins.